Heart to Heart
by J.D. Cunegan
Summary: One-shot I wrote for Tumblr based on the prompt: "Jim and Kate have a heart to heart during Castle's disappearance." Insert scene for "Driven." Spoilers for season 7.


"Katie, give me the bottle."

Kate Beckett flinched when her father, Jim, reached out for the bottle in her hand. Aged scotch, already half-empty. She sat hunched in the corner, arms wrapped around her knees. Her eyes darted every which way, alcohol strong on her breath.

"For God's sake…" Jim shook his head and grabbed the bottle.

"NO!"

Jim jumped back with a start and the commotion caused the bottle to fall to the floor and shatter. A puddle of scotch kept Jim at arm's length from his daughter. Jim loosened the black tie hanging around his neck before taking off his jacket.

"Katie…" She flinched again. Jim put his hands up, as if he were a suspect at gunpoint. He wished he could say this was his first go-around with the bottle; not only did he fall victim to it once, he watched, from a distance, as she turned to it three years ago, when a sniper bullet buried itself into her chest.

Kate pulled through that ordeal. This one, though…the disappearance of her fiance, Richard Castle…it had been a month and a half since he disappeared in a fiery car crash, and the investigations were going nowhere. With each passing day, he could see just a little more of the life being drained out of his daughter.

She'd come home after midnight each of the last four nights, immediately grabbing a bottle of whatever was on-hand in the fridge and holing herself in her room. Years ago, Jim had done the exact same thing to cope with the brutal murder of his beloved Johanna, but Katie helped him get past that.

The watch on her wrist proved it.

"Katherine. Houghton. Beckett." She flinched again, but Kate's eyes finally met his. She swallowed hard, averting her gaze. "You have to stop doing this. You're killing yourself."

Her lower lip quivered, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. Shaky fingers raked through her hair, and Kate shook her head. "I'm a terrible cop, dad…"

Careful to avoid the spilled scotch, Jim sat next to his daughter. She flinched again, but relented. He could smell the alcohol on her breath now, shaking his head and blanching. He forgot the last time he'd had a drink, nor could he remember the last time he actually wanted one.

Father's instinct told Jim to comfort his daughter, wrap his arms around her and offer loving words of wisdom. But Kate being how she was, especially when she was emotionally-frayed and full of booze, that probably was the wrong call.

So he waited.

"I've…_always_ been able to solve the case." Her voice was almost a whisper. "Didn't matter how complicated, now little we had…I always find the answers."

She looked up at her father, tears running down her cheeks. "Always…"

Logically, Jim knew what the odds were. Almost two months in, and no leads other than a video that showed Castle dropping off the money to pay to have the SUV that carried him away destroyed. The FBI was no help, and Kate's partners at the 12th weren't faring much better.

Still, he knew that was the last thing his daughter needed to hear right now. So he sat with her, watching her shoulders jerk as she cried.

"Do you remember what you told me?" Jim used his thumb to turn her chin until she was looking at him again. "The night you got me to kick the habit?"

She sniffled, shaking her head.

"You said, 'Daddy, what would Mom think?'" He gave Kate a sad smile when the familiarity registered on her face. Her shoulders slumped, and Jim exhaled in relief when he felt his daughter's head rest on his shoulder.

"That was the wake-up call I needed, Katie. I wasn't honoring Johanna, I wasn't mourning her, I wasn't memorializing her. I was being selfish. I was too wrapped up in how hurt I was that she was gone that I forgot about everything else that mattered."

Kate sniffled again, her fingers toying with the ring hanging off the chain around her neck. Jim kissed the top of her head. "I know how bad you're hurting, kid, cause I felt it. I felt it when we buried your mom, and i felt it when they wheeled you into surgery."

He grabbed Kate's left hand, giving it a squeeze. She looked up at him again, and Jim wiped away a tear with the back of his thumb. "I know how much you love Rick…but I also know how much you _adore_ Martha and Alexis.

"They need you right now. And you need them. This?" He pointed at the puddle on the hardwood. "It's temporary. And it'll do more harm than good."

Kate looked up at her father again before wrapping her shaky arms around his shoulders and breaking down. He closed his eyes and wrapped his arms tightly around her as she sobbed into his shoulder. Jim squeezed her and ran a hand up and down her back.

"I miss him so much, Daddy…"

"I know, Katie." He squeezed his daughter again. "I know."


End file.
